


Stars

by ToxicPineapple



Series: Rantaro and Mukuro are power besties [3]
Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Dangan Ronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing, Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: Alternate Universe - Non-Despair (Dangan Ronpa), Being young idk, Developing Relationships, Established Relationship, F/F, F/M, Friendship, Good Friends, Good buddy pals, Implied Relationships, M/M, Multi, Platonic Relationships, Power Shortage, Star Gazing, Stars, introspective
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-22
Updated: 2019-09-22
Packaged: 2020-10-13 21:16:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20589242
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ToxicPineapple/pseuds/ToxicPineapple
Summary: “It’s nice seeing them here, isn’t it? Makes them feel a bit more like home.”“The stars?” Mukuro asks, out of a want for clarification rather than any real incredulity.“Yeah. I guess I just always thought… they weren’t really up there. Or at least, the stars were something that used to be there, and aren’t anymore, and could only be found in other places. Like, I mean, I always knew that they’re there, I just didn’t think about them being here until I came outside and saw…” Rantaro trails off, and Mukuro… understands.---A city-wide power outage lets everyone see the stars.





	Stars

“Ugh, what’s all the commotion about? Just get a candle or something!” Junko exclaims, rolling her eyes. “We all knew this was going to happen.”

Mukuro considers grabbing a jacket but decides against it, reasoning that she’s been in much colder weather before and should thus be fine. Besides, with the heaters all caput, it’s cold in the building, probably about as chilly as it is outside, and she’s fine with it now, so why would it bother her out there? She shoots a flat look in her sister’s direction, which probably goes unseen in the dark, but it’s alright. “You knew this was going to happen.” She corrects, “With your analytical prowess abilities. And with the power out, we can see the stars.”

“Yeah, I guess it’s not every day the power goes out across the city,” Junko sighs, which is information that Mukuro already has, so it kind of seems like she’s trying to put in exposition for a crappy fanfiction, but anyway. “Still, it’s totally boring. Who needs to see the stars? They’re still  _ there,  _ y’know. Just google them or something. Or go camping.”

Rather than correcting that statement, as Mukuro would love to do, she decides to disengage and grabs her phone, sliding it into her pocket (though it is powered off because she won’t be able to charge it until the power’s back) and heading to the exit of her room. Junko is lounging on the bed, as she’s known to do from time to time, chattering arbitrarily about something or another. She must’ve gotten bored of calling all their peers boring. Not that Mukuro really cares. The soldier spares her a glance anyway. “Are you coming?” She asks, as she feels like she should.

“Nah, I’ll just sit in here and think about how everyone is having fun without me. Oh, the despair~”

So, yeah, Mukuro pretty much bolts from that room.

She loves Junko to death, but yeesh. At any rate, the school building is basically deserted. Everyone else is already out in the courtyard, where she’s headed. Mukuro wouldn’t even be going out there, since she’s seen the stars plenty of times, but when she passed Makoto on his way down, he told her to come, and since he’s her boyfriend and all, she felt inclined to do so. Funny how dating a person will make you do things like that. She’s glad that she was alone when she and Makoto passed each other in the hall, though. It’s not like Junko doesn’t know that they’re dating, it’s just that, Junko loves to antagonise, and usually that means she ruins things for Mukuro that Mukuro really likes. So she’s been trying not to talk about it with her younger sister, if she can avoid it.

When she steps out into the courtyard, she’s faced with a gentle breeze and the smell of rain still lingering from earlier that day. It’s not raining anymore, or even cloudy, which really works out in her favour.

Mukuro isn’t entirely sure how, or why, even, but about an hour ago, all of the power in the city completely went out. Someone must have messed with the power grid, or something because now there are no street lights, and no inside lights, and nothing of anything, really. As a result, the milky black sky that stretches across the horizon is dotted with little silver stars- Mukuro’s trained eyes immediately find Polaris, and then she looks away from it, wondering what other constellations she can find. She’s seen the stars before, of course, but… it’s weird seeing them here. She doesn’t associate a sky full of stars with Hope’s Peak Academy, or with Tokyo in general. Usually the stars make her think of camping out on a mission.

The air smells so clean, strangely.

“Kinda wild, isn’t it?” An arm drops onto her shoulder, as though to use it as a rest, and Mukuro shoots Rantaro a flat look, but drops the expression and trades it out for a small smile quickly when their eyes meet. He’s smiling, of course, since he’s always smiling, but his eyes are reflecting all the stars that are spread out in front of them and he looks alive in a way that’s hard for her to describe. “What kind of  _ mad prankster  _ managed to go and nuke the power grid?”

“An absolute legend.” Mukuro responds immediately, and then looks back at the stars, leaning against Rantaro slightly as she directs her gaze up to the sky. “I haven’t seen the stars in so long.” She murmurs. “The last time I was really out looking at them was…” she trails off, wondering if she can even think of a specific moment. When it happened, she wasn’t really thinking,  _ this is going to be the last time that I’ll be able to see the stars for a while,  _ so she didn’t mark down the moment in her head. It’s a bit sad, if she thinks about it that way. Maybe she’ll never remember. “I don’t know.” She says eventually.

“Almost all of my sisters got lost in the city.” Rantaro explains. “So I’m pretty much on the same boat as you.” He’s speaking softly, of course; there’s nobody else in this courtyard who knows about his sisters other than Mukuro. It feels special. “It’s nice seeing them here, isn’t it? Makes them feel a bit more like home.”

“The stars?” Mukuro asks, out of a want for clarification rather than any real incredulity.

“Yeah. I guess I just always thought… they weren’t really up there. Or at least, the stars were something that used to be there, and aren’t anymore, and could only be found in other places. Like, I mean, I always knew that they’re  _ there,  _ I just didn’t think about them being  _ here  _ until I came outside and saw…” Rantaro trails off, and Mukuro… understands.

Off to her left, she watches one of Rantaro’s classmates, named Kaito, she believes, pointing out different constellations and talking about them. She can hear him well from where she’s standing and his excitement is palpable. The smile on his face makes everything seem a bit more wonderful. The boy standing next to her, the other Ultimate Detective, seems inclined to agree, as he is following every one of Kaito’s movements with an expression of admiration very strong on his features. Near them, two girls- Maki and Kaede, though Mukuro only remembers Kaede because she’s always in the piano room- are listening as well, but Kaede’s arm is hooked around Maki’s waist and the gesture is soft. Intimate in a way that’s hard to put words to.

Further away, one of the upperclassmen, Mahiru, is taking pictures, and her friends are climbing up onto each other’s shoulders in an attempt to photobomb, but they’re all laughing and smiling. High on the feeling of living. Korekiyo stands nearby, engaged in a conversation with that short tennis pro, Ryoma, though his gaze flickers over to Rantaro on occasion. (The adventurer, the absolute fool, doesn’t seem to notice.) Amidst all the commotion, Hajime, the only reserve student ever to transfer into the main course, rests his head on his girlfriend’s shoulder- her name is Chiaki- and links pinkies with his boyfriend, who is extremely chaotic and also problematic but Mukuro is glad they’re happy.

The stars they’re seeing are all light years upon light years away. Many of them are dead. All they’re seeing are the echoes of the lights that used to shine so bright. Were Mukuro to chase after them, many of those stars would no longer be there. But many stars are quick to be born in their place. There’s something hopeful about that, she supposes.

Rantaro eventually does meet Korekiyo’s gaze, and he murmurs something into Mukuro’s ear before heading off to join the anthropologist, which is fair. She’s content to enjoy the moment in the company of her own thoughts.

“Muku, hey!” Grey meets grey when Mukuro looks over and sees her boyfriend, smiling from his eyes like he did the first time they made eye contact, and he jogs over, almost like an excited puppy. “You’re not wearing a jacket, you’re gonna get cold!”

“I’m fine,” Mukuro answers, but that doesn’t stop Makoto from shrugging off his jacket to wrap it around her shoulders. “But, I mean,” Mukuro stutters a bit, since she’s still not used to him being able to do things like that with a straight face. “I- I don’t mind,”

Makoto laughs a little bit, taking her hand. “C’mon, Taka and Mondo and I were just talking about you.” He says, and Mukuro raises her eyebrows, so he adds, “Good things, we just want you to be standing with us, y’know? The power will probably be on soon. We should enjoy this.”

The power will probably be on soon. Mukuro looks up at the sky, wondering if she could memorise the swirling beauty of all the stars and the way that it looks over Hope’s Peak, making the grass of the courtyard look silver green and all the buildings glow a bit. The stars look the same as they always do, but somehow they’re even more powerful like this, in a place where they aren’t usually. She’ll forget what this looks like soon, probably, as they all inevitably will. This night will be a memory eventually, something lost in time so that her mind can make room for something much more sad.

But maybe when she’s old and dying, she can look back on this moment and smile.

“Okay.” Mukuro squeezes her boyfriend’s hand. “I’m coming.”

**Author's Note:**

> I know, it's another stars fic, but I actually wrote this a couple weeks ago and I just re-read it and realised I like it a lot more than I thought I did so I'm posting it.
> 
> anyway uwu take some softness


End file.
